Tracing a Source of Liangchengzhen’s Polished Stone Tools

For early China, the assumption has been that craft production was centrally controlled by autocratic rulers in early cities. In this paper, we present new findings of stone tool assemblages at the small Nanyangjiazhuangzi site (Longshan period, 2400–1800 b.c.) in the coastal area of Shandong Province, China. At Nanyangjiazhuangzi, the unusually high density of stone artifacts and debris, associated with the early stages of tool manufacture, indicates that the site had an important role in the reduction process that worked raw stone material into tools. The discoveries yield critical evidence for the source of unfinished preforms and polished stone tools discovered over generations of research at the larger site of Liangchengzhen, 25 km away. The finding that specialized production for exchange was not restricted to large settlements in Late Neolithic eastern Shandong serves as a basis to question the notion that such production was centrally controlled by ruling elites.